Well, here comes my review. I purchased 3 M-200’s because I wanted to start building my “separates” system and I figured relieving the 1050 of the fronts and center duty would be my most beneficial upgrade, plus I could not pass up on the introductory pricing.

Day 1:
They arrived UPS and the guy walked them up to my door any said, “Wow, this must be good stuff, you have three of them.” I was grinning from ear to ear. I took the boxes inside and set them up on my table to make sure they were flat. Two of them had a slight wobble so I loosened the case, flattened them out and re-tightened the screws. First I hook up two of the M-200’s just so I could listen to the stereo pair and I would worry about the 3rd one later. Setup was a breeze; I set the switch to music and hooked up the preamp connections from the 1050. Next I plugged them in and flipped the switches on the rear panels. Then I powered on the 1050 and all signals were go for launch. I popped in a CD and WOW I was very impressed. I was sitting on the couch thumbing through the manual, enjoying my music. About ten minutes into listening…a loud pop comes from the right speaker…the bottom M-200 starts smoking and seconds later then the top M-200 circuit trips into protect mode (the dreaded red light). I run up to turn of power off the amps.

This leaves me with one M-block in protect mode and the other M-block in protect mode and smoking. The smell was awful. It reminded me of the times I used to burn up circuits in my Engineering labs in college. It was now about 5:30PM Pacific Time and I immediately went to my PC and e-mailed the Outlaws. I was very disappointed at this point and too afraid to hook up the 3rd one.

Day2:
The next morning I woke up and received a prompt e-mail from Outlaw stating that my new units were on the way. Later that day I spoke to someone from Outlaw regarding the faulty units. The customer service was top notch…I cannot express this point enough. Later that night I hooked up the 3rd M-200 and gave a run. I was afraid to leave the room while it was on because of past experiences. After the first ten minutes past…I was still kind of skeptical…however, as the hours rolled buy I figured it was safe to assume the last M-200 was functioning properly.

Day 3:
The new M-200’s arrived around 5:00PM. I pulled them out and hooked them up. Perfection! I ran them a couple of hours and was very pleased (although I was still worried about leaving the room with them on). The next day passed and the next day…still functioning. As each day passes I became more and more comfortable with the amps.

TWO MONTHS LATER:
Now for the best part! I love these things. I have auditioned many receivers including the Marantz 7200, 8200, 9200. I have auditioned various Denon, Nak, Adcom, Integra, B&K, and Onkyo (989) units and I decided to give the 1050 a try. I really enjoyed it, so when the opportunity to test-drive the M-200’s came about I could not resist. The following comparisons are between the 1050 and the M-200’s…The M-200 seem to deliver a much more powerful presence in the room. The quality of sound seemed to remain the same (excellent), however soundstage seemed to open up. The difference is like listening to a concert (1050) and being at a concert (M-200). The M-200’s also seemed to have a much higher sound floor because I had to boost my rears up to +10db and +9db respectively because the M-200’s were drowning them out. Now all of my speaker levels match, however, if I had to raise the levels any higher I would be out of luck because of the lack of flexibility the 1050 offers in that department.

I could not ask for more in 2-channel stereo, recording came alive and swept me into the moment. The power reserves to unleash a complicated piece were always readily available. After putting the amps through my torture test…they did not even seem to break a sweat, even after hours (5) of playing loud and proud, these monsters were seemingly cool to the touch. They run way cooler than the 1050 pushing only two channels. But I expected that, as the 1050 gets uncomfortably warm. The same results applied to movies as well. The amps breezed through my tougher soundtracks including SWE1, SWE2, the Matrix, U571, SPR, Peal Harbor (DC), We Were Soldiers, and various others that I threw at them without a hiccup. I cannot say how pleased I am with the addition of these new M-200’s. I am using the M-200’s to power a pair of Polk RT800i’s and the CS400i center channel. I look forward to adding another pair for my F/X500i rears in the future to complete the system…of course I will need to get a new pre/pro to go along with them, but that will happen much later as I am completely satisfied with new setup.

I would just like to thank the Outlaws for their superb customer service. I could not be happier.

On a side note: I will be listening to my friends new B&K 7250 (that he just purchased) in a month or so. I’m curious to hear the difference. I like the sound of B&K amps as well.

-BL

I enjoyed reading your review Beginnersluck. Thanks for taking the time to post it. Good listening...

Excellent Review BeginnersLuck...now go post it at AudioReview.com

http://www.audioreview.com/pscAmplification/Amplifiers/Outlaw,Audio,200/PRD_142942_1583_1282438crx.aspx

I look so lonely there, being the only reviewer

I am honestly surprised that 2 amps malfunctioned like they did. If that would have happened to me, I would have cried like a little girl, LOL.

Iv'e had mine for 3 weeks now and could not be happier. I was going to order the 950/755 combo last week, but due to the unforseen LFE problem in DTS-ES on the 950, I will be waiting to see what Outlaw does to fix it.

Outlaw rules. If this were another company, I would have changed my mind about purchasing the 950. Instead, I will wait it out and get it when the problem is rectified. That shows how much faith I have in them

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Play it LoUd!!

Good review

Did you have the amps plugged into a surge supressor? Since 2 totally unrelated (not directly connected) components went into protect mode I wonder if you had a voltage spike....

Unferth-

Yes, I had them both plugged into my monster HTS2000. They were working fine for 10 minutes, then pop, sizzzzzzle and protect. The 3 that I have now have been working flawlessly. I think one of them had a bad cap or resistor, however, this is just speculation. I'll go post on audio review now.

Thanks,
-BL

Thanks for the review. I am currently looking into buying 1 to add a rear center. I already own a 5 channel that is rated at 200 watts/channel and was looking for something to match as close as possible. This sounds like the winner. I am also looking at the 950 to replace my processor to get the 6.1/7.1 but am waiting on the response from Outlaw on the LFE issue.

I had one smoke too. Got another the next day. Great service, but why do they smoke?